Natural Remedies for Bad Breath

Halitosis or bad breath is a very common problem in the general population. Let’s face facts, bad breath is embarrassing when we are standing close to a person who feels foul smell emanating from your mouth. It can be more embarrassing when you are hanging out with someone special and that person smells your awful breath. But here is the good news; we can cure this problem with the help of specific natural remedies for bad breath.

There are a number of conditions that can cause bad breath. They could arise from dental problems, diseases of the lungs, problems in nose or neck region, kidney, stomach, liver and intestine. The basic cause for bad breath may either be chronic or temporary. Transient or temporary bad breath is mostly caused by accumulation of food particles, smoking, alcohol, stress, hunger and even less water intake (dehydration). Majority of such problems arise in our mouth region as a result of the following conditions:

Tooth abscess/decay

Poor oral hygiene

Gum diseases

Mouth breathing

Dry mouth

Dentures

Chronic constipation

Mouth ulcers

The other reason for bad breath is the millions of fungus and bacteria which are in our mouth. Generally, bacteria dirtify our mouth from inside and it leaves volatile compounds of Sulfur as we munch away the debris and leftover food in our mouth. While we exhale or talk, this sulfur compound mixes with the air and causes the foul smell and rush of air.

The last cause is taking a diet which causes bad breath. When you consume a diet that has less carbohydrate and high proteins, it causes our body to produce ketones which gives your breath that foul smelling odor. Garlic and onion breath are a problem for everyone. It happens as the chemicals in garlic and onions are digested in our bloodstream. The same blood gets back in our lungs for the oxygen so it smells foul as we exhale. We can always use gum or mints for covering it up, but again this would not eliminate it completely. We would need to use the natural remedies for bad breath for getting rid of all such breath problems. We are going to explore some natural remedies for dealing with this problem.

Flossing and Brushing – It always helps the problem of bad breath if we floss and brush every corner and nook of our mouth. We should try not to leave much leftover food inside our mouth for bacteria munching. It is advisable to at least brush teeth for 2-3 minutes as. If we do not floss and just brush, it is just like taking a bath but not cleaning the underarms. Brushing can only clean 70% of our mouth; the rest of cleaning is done when we floss. It is amongst the most important natural remedies for bad breath.

Cleaning your tongue – People do not usually clean their tongue and just concentrate on their brushing and cleaning the teeth only. Cleaning the tongue is very important as a lot of debris and leftover food is found on the tongue. Tongue cleaning is very effective for minimizing the bad smell as the bacteria hides in deep crevices of the tongue. But it should be done carefully and not vigorously as it may damage the taste buds which are very delicate on our tongue.

Chewing of sugarless gums – The chewing gums help the problem of bad breath by removing the debris and food from mouth and increasing salivary flow. Saliva is very helpful and is present in our mouth for reducing the bad breath problem.

Increasing the Water Intake – Drinking a lot of water keeps us healthy and also helps in producing the saliva in our mouth keeping the bad breath well controlled. Water intake is amongst the best natural remedies for bad breath. Drinking water washes away the leftover food and increases flow of saliva which makes our mouth inhospitable for the bad bacteria causing the bad breath. Any activity that results in the dryness of mouth like decongestants and antihistamines medications, exercising, excessive talking, drinking alcohol, smoking or dieting is complemented by drinking water.

Using mouthwash occasionally– the regular use of mouth wash gives transient relief. However, this remedy is not recommended to on daily basis. Most of the mouth washes contain alcohol which in return increases and adds up to the dryness of mouth and bad breath. It may also alter micro flora of mouth which kills even good bacteria. Apart from these measures, regular visits should be paid to the dentists for other problems increasing bad breath like diseased gums or decayed teeth.

Adding healthy items to your diet – A little change in diet can result as the best natural remedies for bad breath problem. Including probiotic drinks and yogurt in the diet can be really helpful. Bad digestive system results in the bad breath and yogurt contains those nutrients which are healthy for our digestive system. Water melon, pears and apples are also very helpful for cleaning the mouth after any meal as they remove the odor-causing bacteria inside our mouth. Going on the raw food diet for five days also cleans out the system as whatever we eat during this time is 50% raw. Eating parsley and fresh mint after every meal freshens the breath of our mouth as well as it has the natural refreshing properties.

Taking Apple Cider Vinegar – Taking a spoon of the apple cider vinegar has also been proved to be helpful before every meal. If a person cannot take it alone then it can also be mixed with pineapple juice or vinegar. It aids our digestive system.

Apart from all these tips, taking 3 chlorophyll capsules with an empty stomach is also very helpful for the bad breath. Hydrogen peroxide can be used instead of an alcoholic mouth wash and brushing with baking soda prevents the growth of bad breath causing bacteria in our mouth. In short, many natural remedies for bad breath can be tried and you can always save yourself the embarrassment of bad breath in public.